Posts Tagged ‘football game’

Most things in life – including football and oatmeal – work on at least two levels.Usually a lot more.

There is, of course, Football the Game.It’s a specific sport played with it’s own set of rules and regulations.

To begin with, there is a difference between playing the game and watching it.And what that means to the individual player and to the individual watcher.

Same with oatmeal.It is, of course, a cereal.It has rules of a sort: half a cup of dry cereal to one cup of water.Or milk, if you prefer.A dash of salt.Unless you’re on a low sodium diet.

But oatmeal may also be considered from the differing viewpoints of what it means to the individual who cooks it and to the individual who eats it.

For the parent preparing oatmeal for the kids on a cold winter morning, it may be an act of love.

Ditto for the significant others who prepare oatmeal to help lower the cholesterol of their dearly beloveds.

The eater, then, may obtain from oatmeal more than insoluble fiber.The memory of Mom or Dad making a raisin face for the morning oatmeal may provide solace on other cold winter mornings long after the kids are no longer kids.

That is, there is the thing itself – like oatmeal – and then there is the feeling attached to that thing.

For the kid whose parent burnt the oatmeal and screamed at the kid to shut up and eat it anyway, the memories may be a tad less heartwarming.

And that’s the way it is with football.Granted, at bottom, it’s just a game.But, like oatmeal, it can also be a good or a bad memory.Or a power play.Or even a weapon.